Samir Shukla
By Samir Shukla
I woke one morning scratching my head and wondering how that little alarm clock next to my bed had turned upside down. It happened sometime during the folds of the night. Who know what tricks time plays on us when we are asleep.
I think I know how that contraption flipped during the night. The Star Trek episode I watched before sleeping was still playing in my head. It was about time and its unrelenting machinations. I must have flipped the clock upside down just before crawling back into bed after my middle of the night bathroom run, induced by a sci-fi dream. Time the thief picks away at our life spans while we lay there like helpless babes in the night ether.
What is time but a specified marker and construct that emanated from human minds. A necessary stitch to mark the passage and segments of our lives. I’ve tried to slow time before. Why wouldn’t an upside-down little clock do the trick of maybe slowing time? Yeah, yeah, I know. But what’s wrong with trying something a child may wonder about? I can see my very younger, curious self, asking, “What if we unplugged a clock? Time would stop? What if we flip a table clock upside down to somehow slow time?”
I flicked away childhood wonderings and flipped the clock right side up in the morning and went about the incoming day.
I’ve had this clock since college. Yes, it is still working, approaching its fifth decade. I got it as a gift when I opened a checking account, back when such gifts were offered by banks when you opened an account. The amount of deposit dictated the size of the gift. This keeper of time is the longest one I have owned, and it still functions like it did when I first plugged it in oh so many years ago.
Humans have forever endeavored to slow things down, to just have some more time. This has been a conundrum going on for eons and will continue until the last human has left this planet.
Nothing works against time, but there is a sweet season where time can move slower, if we set aside some moments daily, say maybe an hour, just to ponder, and linger in the warm breezes. Stretch. Every. Minute. This lovely season is what we call summer. This year I was looking forward to starting it earlier.
We were slated to jet off to the tropics in mid-April to the warm island of Puerto Rico, a much-needed reconnection with sunny climes after a long winter. I set the alarm on that little clock the night before our morning flight. I had not used that alarm for many years; the cellphone has taken over that function. This night, though, I wanted to set the alarm on that old clock and hear its familiar chime in the morning. The clock that was flipped upside down in a dream state a few days earlier would help begin the day that kicks off an early summer. That sweet slow season.
Right on the set marker, the chime announced that it was morning and we headed to the airport.
After arriving at our destination and settling in, the rest of the week just seemed to float away. This kind of time spent in the company of family or good friends has different vibes, we don’t complain about it except to say that, well, wish we had more time to spend together.
Now it was the last day of our trip. The waves were rough this morning on the beach. The bluer hues of the incoming surf added to the aura of the tropics. Instead of getting my toes wet in the rough surf, I decided to sit on the sand and just observe. I knew I had to walk to the beach, just couple blocks from where we were staying, one last time.
Anytime I visit the beach in summer, there’s this moment where I sit under a palm tree or a patch of soft sand and become one with the watery horizon. Relishing every minute. The world melts away while I’m in one of my happy spots, just sitting there, no agenda. In these moments, usually an hour or so, time slows as I linger there stretching the minutes out in my mind. I sat under that palm tree, reliving the past week and filing away the memories, a warm breeze keeping me company.
Summer kicked off early this year during our trip to the sunny island. Now the lovely summer months will last longer. I thought of my clock flipping time manipulation from a few weeks earlier. Along with that sci-fi tinged dream, my mind was awaiting the arrival of summer.
The days are getting longer. There is a way to slow time after all. Even add an extra hour. It’s possible in the mind, the ultimate timekeeper. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to lots of 25 hour days this summer.
Samir Shukla is the Editor of Saathee Magazine
Contact: samir@saathee.com
Twitter / X: @ShuklaWrites
Newsletter: ShuklaWrites.Substack.com
